Cabbage: The Unsung Cruciferous Vegetable Worth Enjoying

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline

Photo by Natasha Skov on Unsplash

It’s a seasonal food and, in my humble opinion, often overlooked; let’s give cabbage a little love. Cabbage comes from the same family of plants as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, and brussel sprouts. It’s thought that the ancient ancestor of cabbage was used in the Mediterranean for medicinal purposes! They used broths made with cabbage to treat headaches, diarrhea, ulcers, gout and even cancers! What about our cabbage today?

First, it generally has a high water content…yay for hydration! Nutritionally speaking, one cup of cabbage gives us 22 calories, 1.14g of protein, 2.2g of fiber, about 35.5mg of calcium, and 150mg of potassium. Cabbage is also a good source of vitamins C, K1, B6, as well as lots of antioxidants and phytochemicals. Quick caveat: cooking cabbage can add a few calories but more importantly, depending on how it’s cooked can diminish some of the nutrients. Still, there’s benefit to cooking it in terms of digestive comfort.

What health benefits might we get from adding cabbage to our menus? There is research showing cabbage may have anticancer properties because of a compound called indole-3-carbinol (I3C). It stimulates the detoxifying enzymes on the digestive tract, so cabbage is often recommended to cancer patients since lab studies saw that it…